Sweet nostalgia

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Posted at 12:02PM, 17 March 2008 by Caroline Hire - Food editor, bbcgoodfood.com

Powdery pink-tipped Candy Cigarettes and Liquorice Pipes with embers made of hundreds and thousands are certainly not something you'd find in the sweet shop these days. Not that you'll find that many sweet shops.

When I was young, my mum took my brother and I to the sweet shop every Friday after school for a weekly treat. We were given twenty five pence with which to buy a quarter - and the choice of Sherbet Pips, Aniseed Balls, Sherbet Lemons, Rhubarb and Custards and Strawberry Bon Bons was too exciting for words. If we had any money left over we'd pick up a Flying Saucer or two, Black Jack or Fruit Salad from the penny sweet selection. Sometimes we'd take a different tack and go for a Sherbet Fountain, a bag of crackly Space Dust or very un-PC packets of Candy Cigarettes knowing full well it wouldn't even last the weekend, and the subsequent sweet-free dessert that ran until next Friday would be even longer. But oh, for that sweet anticipation!

Sadly, sweets aren't really a treat anymore, more of a currency for overloaded parents.

Sadly, sweets aren't really a treat anymore, more of a currency for overloaded parents. Even my friends who I'd consider to be model parents seem to have succumbed to the 'If you're good, you can have a lolly...' line of defence for getting through any fraught shopping trip. And who can blame them - at every checkout, temptation abounds in the form of rows of brightly packaged sweets and chocolates that are guaranteed to catch a child's eye. Even if you've held out against those little pleas thus far, that's enough to break anyone's resolve.

And it's not just a temptation for children, it's hard to resist that frequently offered bumper slab of chocolate going cheap as you pay for your paper at a certain nationwide newsagent chain.

So sweets aren't a treat for me either anymore, more an urge I cave into and then feel guilty about afterwards...

But that doesn't stop me enjoying a bit of sweet nostalgia. So, tell us - which sweets bring back fond memories of your childhood?

Comments

1-20 of 51 comments

prune boy

17 March 2008, 2:43PM
prune boy

As a kid I lived abroad and didn't often get many english sweets so I doubly looked forward to my grandparents bringing over the likes of 'sherbet fountain'. To this day I occassionally treat myself which brings back a multitude of memories.

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Beth

17 March 2008, 3:12PM
Beth

Strawberrry Sherbets. I remember going up to the village with my Grandad to get 'a quarter' of strawberry Sherberts or Sherbet pips.

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James

17 March 2008, 3:19PM
James

I was told by the lady in the village post office when I was young that a quarter of sherbet pips would last a whole month if you ate just one a day. One a day? It was more like one a second. That was in the days when villages had post offices. And when you got fed up (in both senses) with shebet lemons, there were sherbet strawberries, that was where it was at. Wickedly tasting 'nerds' made great flicking material apart from being seriously zing. At a 40th birthday party recently the hosts had been to the cash and carry and sought out boxes of all these favourites - the sherbet flying saucers, shebret lemons, jelly beans, kilner jars of smarties, bootlaces, Kola Kubes, the coconut mushrooms - sweets, not just youth they said are wasted on the young....

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Andrea

17 March 2008, 3:37PM
Andrea

Holly bought me a bag of sherbert the other day as a retro treat and even though it made my teeth tingle, my tongue tremble and my sugar levels go through the roof there was something really comforting about the experience. It made me want to put my hair in pigtales and get out my collection of Kiss cards (if only I still had them). In Australia we used to buy a paper bag of lollies (as we call them) for 20c and gorge ourselves on Freckles, lolly teeth, redskins bananas, milk bottles and, my fave, fizzy cola bottles. Also liked to shock the parents by dragging on a lolly cigarette. Those were the (un-pc) days!

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Fiona

17 March 2008, 4:43PM
Fiona

My village shop used to sell toffee crumble by the quarter. It came in a white paper bag and after a while, the crumble would start to go gooey from the warmth of your hand - just magic!

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JANET

17 March 2008, 6:46PM
JANET

On cold days you could make it look like you were really smoking with the candy cigarettes! Does anyone else remember the spanish? tobacco mad of coconut - it was lovely but took ages to eat - brilliant.

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igglepiggle

17 March 2008, 8:47PM
igglepiggle

I love little white mice...and I can still buy them at a traditional sweet shop we have...heaven

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clairu-claira

17 March 2008, 8:52PM
clairu-claira

most fantastic sweets ever made, i reckon, are; ice cream flavour chewits, lemon bon-bons, mint flavoured things that look like the sandwich shaped sweets from liquorice allsorts (no idea what theyre called), dweebs, fizzy shoelaces, anglo bubbly, strawberry shrimps, hmm sure theres loads more to add when i think of them...

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tattookitten

18 March 2008, 7:37AM
tattookitten

My sister and I loved sherbet pips and when we brought a bag she'd eat all the white ones and I'd eat all the pink ones. I also used to love those pink foamy shrimps, but black jacks were my weakness - especially if they were a bit soft, yum! My mum and I would buy a bagful and sit watching tv on a Sunday afternoon munching away until our tongues turned black :D Hmm I think I might have to go to the newsagent later and see if they sell them as I've got a craving for them now!

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Annie

18 March 2008, 1:28PM
Annie

Sweet peanuts with real chopped salted peanuts in the centre. Sadly, today's versions have never been anywhere near a peanut!

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Christina

18 March 2008, 3:13PM
Christina

Does anyone remember Refresher chews, they were rectangle shaped yellow chews with a powdery lemon sherbert centre absolutely delicious, also refreshers which were round fizzy sweets and came in strawberry, lemon, orange and lime flavours, what about swizzlers lollies which were half pink and half white, or yellow and green I still buy them today, and last but not least bananas, which were like pink shrimps but were shaped like a banana and tasted like the fruit itself yummy!!

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thisediblelife

18 March 2008, 6:05PM
thisediblelife

A quarter of pineapple cubes and aniseed balls please! That said, I've had space dust in desserts at The Fat Duck and Sat Baines and it is just a fantastic ingredient. Also many a Wham bar was consumed in my youth which accounted for the loss of several fillings...

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mich

18 March 2008, 7:28PM
mich

Reading through all these comments has bought back so many memories or sweets. I can remember going to the sweet shop with threepence to spend (old money) and it went so far and was such a treat. Not like today when kids just expect to have sweets and chocolate whenever they want!

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Emma

18 March 2008, 8:37PM
Emma

The closest I get to eating these sorts of sweets is when I go to the cinema and have pic'n'mix (definitely not the popcorn!) - but how expensive is it!! They're certainly not penny sweets that's for sure - why do they have to cost so much? Milk gums, and edible bead watches and bracelets were always my favourite.

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Kate

18 March 2008, 10:24PM
Kate

Little chocolatey cup-cakes were one of my favourites - I think they used to be about 2p each, 30 yrs ago! they came in tiny metal brightly coloured mini cake cases and melted REALLY easily! Apart from that my sisters and I used to buy whatever lasted the longest and seemed like good value!

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Elaine

18 March 2008, 10:39PM
Elaine

Opal Fruits... made to make your mouth water. Loved the experience of flipping off the waxy paper (they were individually wrapped) and getting that hit of fruit, especially the red ones. But you always saved the green ones for people you didn't like so much. Not sure why... the same with Fruit Polos. Do they make those any more?

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kiwi

19 March 2008, 9:22AM
kiwi

we always eat sweets in ict.

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cutielou

19 March 2008, 11:16AM
cutielou

Some real memories coming back here from all your comments-fantastic! My particular favourites where Sour Apples, Fruit Salads and who remembers Mojo chews, delish. I particularly remember feeling so rich with 3 or 4 old pennies to spend and coming out of the tiny local corner shop after staring at an array of brightly coloured jars, armed with several bags of goodies. Those were the days.

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Clare Drury

19 March 2008, 8:23PM
Clare Drury

Hey! Does anyone remember spangles. They came in every flavour I could think of as a child.

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Rachel

19 March 2008, 9:48PM
Rachel

yes i remember spangles they were in selection boxes while too i loved them haven't seen them for years.

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